


Thyme with Friends (Is Souprisingly Fun)

by sophiegaladheon



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Banter, Friendship, Gen, Holodecks/Holosuites, Post-Season/Series Finale, not compliant with the post-show novels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21933946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophiegaladheon/pseuds/sophiegaladheon
Summary: Julian interrupts Ezri's lunch.
Relationships: Julian Bashir & Ezri Dax
Kudos: 4
Collections: Star Trek Secret Santa 2019





	Thyme with Friends (Is Souprisingly Fun)

**Author's Note:**

> A gift for @inkieblu on tumblr, for the Star Trek Secret Santa 2019.
> 
> (I apologize for the title☺)

The replimat was crowded with hungry lunchtime diners but Ezri managed to snag a seat at one of the tiny tables tucked in the back, sliding her tray down just ahead of a rather disgruntled engineering technician. Ezri gave the woman an apologetic smile as she shuffled off. She usually wouldn’t mind sharing, but she’d spent her morning working her way through a mountain of paperwork the size of the station and she hadn’t even made a dent. Her campaign to get the whole sector in therapy might have been too successful.

With that thought firmly in mind, she pulled out a data pad, grabbed her spoon, and settled in for a working lunch.

“You would not believe what Quark just said to me.” The indignant words were accompanied by the squeaky scrape of chair legs against the replimat’s linoleum floor and a chorus of angry protests from diners at the neighboring table.

Ezri sighed deeply, ate another spoonful of soup, and, with the full knowledge that she was going to regret this, looked up.

Julian plopped himself down across the tiny table from her; for some reason he had twisted his purloined chair around so that he straddled the back, arms crossed along the top. His features were twisted into a dramatic, annoying pout and Ezri briefly spared a thought to once more wonder how she ever thought his overblown theatrics were actually attractive.

“What did he say?” she asked and wondered if she could talk Starfleet into sending her an assistant. This station was just too much for only one counselor to manage.

“Quark said I was moping! He said I was hiding in the holosuite like a child.” He huffed. “I’m not moping.”

Ezri raised an eyebrow at him.

“I’m not!”

“There’s nothing wrong with a bit of moping, Julian,” she said, slowly stirring her soup as it cooled past the point of edibility. “You miss your friends, it’s perfectly normal. And you can have my word as a licensed mental health professional on that. With both Miles and Garak gone you have a significant hole in your established social life. It’s perfectly normal for you to try and fill that gap with the same sort of activities as the ones that have gone missing.”

Julian groaned, but then he smiled and relaxed into a less dramatic posture. “Have I ever told you how annoying it is when you go all counselor on me?” he asked, still smiling.

“All the time, which I’m sure is why you still persist in coming to me with all of your problems.” Ezri rolled her eyes. “Seriously. It’s normal. You miss your friends. You’re lonely. Quark’s just giving you grief.”

“I know, I know. You’re right. As always.” He flashed that charming smile of his and oh, yes. Ezri did remember why she found him attractive. She could still see it, objectively, but she was well past her attraction otherwise.

She kicked him lightly in the shin. “So now that I’ve suitably psychoanalyzed you in the middle of the replimat lunch rush, do you think you could let me get back to work? Go find someone to hang out with the next time you’re feeling lonely. Or, better yet, go do some doctoring. Surely you must have some work to do. I certainly have plenty of my own.” She waved her datapad at him with a resigned smile.

“I’m on my lunch break.” Julian waved a hand dismissively. “And so are you. Has anyone ever told you that you work too much? You should really take some more time to relax.”

Ezri couldn’t help but laugh at his mock-serious tone. She could tell from the twinkle in his eye that he’d done it on purpose and it made her smile all the wider. They need more jokes and silliness on the station, there hadn’t been nearly enough of that lately.

“I mean it! You should take some time to relax. I have just the thing—Felix sent me a new holosuite program that I haven’t been able to try out yet. Why don’t you come along this evening and we can try it out together?”

Ezri couldn’t stop laughing. She was drawing stares from other diners with what was now a raucous cackle, but she couldn’t help herself. “Julian,” she said, gasping for breath as she got herself back under control, “if you want to hang out you can always just ask. You don’t have to try and make me think it is my idea.”

Julian froze for a moment, then shrugged, his smile turning soft and wry. Ezri reached out and gave him a gentle pat on the back of his hand.

“Well, will you?” he asked.

Ezri sighed. She thought about the mountain of paperwork looming over her week and all of the memos Starfleet medical had been sending out about the importance of ensuring proper rotation of recreational activities for Starfleet personnel.

“Fine,” she said. She poked once more defeatedly at the congealed remnants of her soup before giving up. The datapad went back into her pocket and she grabbed her tray to take it to the recycler. “But it better not be one of those adaptations of Cardassian literature. I am not Garak and I have no interest in helping you figure out the point of the repetitive epic.”

Julian looked sad for a brief second before his features smoothed over. “No Cardassian literature, I promise,” he said as he followed her out, “I think it will be to your taste, in fact.”

* * *

“To my taste?” Ezri shouted as the delightful winter snowscape of their alpine ski program dissolved into a chaotic flurry of shouting and gunfire.

Julian shrugged. “Felix said it was a ski program.”

Ezri resisted the urge to hit him with her single remaining ski pole. “Yes, but Felix knows what you like. Of course he put in spies. Or terrorists. Or, whoever these people are supposed to be.” She peered around the tree she was hiding behind to get a glimpse of the armed, masked men who so rudely interrupted her break from paperwork.

Julian grinned at her, looking like he hadn’t had such a good time in ages. He probably hadn’t, now that she thought about it. 

“I suppose,” he said, “Next time I’ll ask for something completely drama-free, just for you. Or we can rent one from Quark.” They made a pair of matching disgusted faces at the thought. “But let’s go stop these guys so we can get back to skiing, yeah?”

“Fine,” Ezri said and followed after him. And if she was secretly a little bit excited about it, well, she didn’t have to _tell_ him.


End file.
